Under the terms of this National Institutes of Health small business innovative research grant award, Chembio will receive approximately 2/3 of the grant funds, or approximately $200,000, with the balance payable to Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) as a subcontractor to Chembio.
This test will use the Dual Path Platform (DPP) technology developed and patented by Chembio together with selected antigens from a large panel of novel recombinant antigens identified at the IDRI, a Seattle-based biotechnology research organization dedicated to technologies that address diseases in the developing world.
The company has said that the test will be developed for point-of-care or field application, with results produced within 15 minutes of addition of blood sample to the assay. In addition to the visual reading, there will be an option for automated readout of the test result.
Steven Reed, founder and head of research at IDRI, said: “Chembio, with its DPP point of care technology, is an ideal partner for our efforts to develop diagnostic reagents for diseases that impact global health. An accurate, field-friendly test to detect tuberculosis will provide the world with a valuable tool to combat this disease.”